


Everyone Loves Roy

by thrakaboom



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Green Arrow (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Fatherhood, Fluff, Friendship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:20:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22120180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thrakaboom/pseuds/thrakaboom
Summary: Roy makes everyone's lives better, even when he doesn't realize it. Five times he didn't realize how much he meant to other people, and one time he had some idea.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Roy Harper, Grant Emerson & Roy Harper, Lian Harper & Roy Harper, Mal Duncan & Roy Harper, Roy Harper & Donna Troy, Roy Harper & Oliver Queen
Comments: 11
Kudos: 72
Collections: The Arrowhead Net 2019 Holiday Exchange





	1. Roy and Ollie

**Author's Note:**

  * For [boyofwonder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/boyofwonder/gifts).



“You _gotta_ listen to this one,” Roy said, after he unceremoniously switched the record on the player from Ollie’s selection to his own, something loud with crashing drums Ollie was sure he would get a headache from. “He’s amazing, like, messiah of rock amazing.”

“Yeah?” Ollie asked, from his spot chopping tomatoes at the counter. “And who is this messiah?”

Roy rolled his eyes. “Just listen to the bassline.” He was sitting cross-legged on the kitchen table, his newest bow on his lap as he worked it over with wood polish. His old one, the one that had served Speedy for years, was getting small for him and in disrepair.

Roy had shot up like a weed over the last year. It was hard looking at him now to believe he had been so scrawny and small when Ollie had first met him. He’d grown into a broad shouldered fifteen-year-old and was on track to be taller than Ollie by sixteen. He’d started to hang out with his own friends more, too, both the Teen Titans and friends he knew from nebulous “parties”. Despite this, Roy seemed to still value the time he and Ollie had making dinner together. Whenever he was home and Ollie was in the kitchen cooking, Roy was leaning on the counter talking about this or that or, on the rarer occasion, helping. Making dinner with Roy was something Ollie had grown to look forward to over the years. He wasn’t sure how his evenings before patrol would be spent if Roy ever outgrew spending time with him.

“Hear it? The badum badbadum badum?” Roy asked over his record “Great huh?”

Looking at his ward, his _son_ , Ollie couldn’t remember a time he had ever been so happy before he had known Roy as he was now.

“Great.” He smiled softly.


	2. Roy and Donna

They dangled their bare feet of the pier, watching the hazy sunrise together. Roy’s pants were rolled up around his calves, and all was quiet around Happy Harbor. The tall shadow of Titans Tower shaded them from the summer morning heat.

“Long night,” Donna said, laying on her back against the old wood. “Jeez, seems like a longer night every time we go out as Teen Titans.”

“You got that right, Wonder Chick,” Roy agreed and laughed when Donna lightly smacked his side for the nickname. Dick hadn’t been along last night, caught up in Gotham City with Batman, and Garth and Wally had already headed home. It was just the two of them. The had already broken up at this point, but neither thought they would ever stop loving the other. Your first love, your first true love, sticks with you deeper than you think it will.

“Do you ever think about what you want to do when we’re older? Outside of this life?” Donna asked, pushing her hair out of her eyes. Her hair was down from it’s ponytail, and Roy thought she looked like one of the goddesses the Amazons descended from. Not Aphrodite, more of an Artemis. Maybe that’s why they got each other so easily- it was an archer thing. She had that sad, faraway look in her eyes.

Roy paused. He didn’t really know what he wanted to do, outside of stay friends with the rest of the Titans. They were his center. He just hoped he was part of their center too.

“Hey Don, I think I’m gonna want to go for a swim,” Roy said as he scooped her up, tossing her into the ocean. Donna squeaked in indignation before laughing. Roy dove in after her, still in all his Speedy uniform, minus only boots, quiver, gloves, and hat.

He always knew how to cheer her up.


	3. Roy and Mal

Roy looked out of place at a jazz bar in his leather and spikes but he had found one of the front most tables and was nursing a Shirley Temple out of respect of Mal’s concern for him. He grinned up at the stage and shot Mal a thumbs up.

Mal had left Great Frog some months before due to creative differences and disliking the growing culture of partying and drugs. He’d left the Titans even before that. Despite that, his former band mate, his former teammate had shown up to his first gig at the jazz club despite Mal having only mentioned it in passing.

That was something he loved about Roy, he was always attentive to his friends. Roy cared about people in a way that Mal cared about music, like it ran through his veins. Mal had been nervous, the youngest and least experienced of the bar’s house band but looking at Roy’s open, encouraging face he found himself at ease, like he was just playing for his friends back at one of the Titans get-togethers, or at a Great Frog rehearsal before it had all fallen apart.

The entire night, whenever he got nervous and started losing the music he would look over at Roy, who was listening eyes closed, or watching so intently it looked more like he was at an orchestra than at a second rate jazz bar. When the set was over, Roy was at the base of the stairs and dragged him into a (rather spiky) hug.

“Damn, Mal!” Roy said, grinning openly and still holding onto Mal’s arms. “You blew the whole place away. Shit! That was the best horn playing I’ve ever heard.”

Mal was sure that wasn’t true, but the thing about Roy was that he was so sincere you couldn’t help but believe him. Mal felt the heat on his cheeks, but laughed good-naturedly and couldn’t help but feel the pride of someone you love being proud of you.

“Although,” Roy teased. “You guys could use a different drummer.”


	4. Roy and Grant

Roy didn’t think he would be teaching anyone to drive for another ten years, but here he was in his dusty old pick up truck in the New Mexico desert. Lian was currently being spoiled with horse riding lessons by Bird, so it was just he and Grant.

“Okay, you have your mirrors adjusted, you know which pedals are which, why don’t you start the engine?” Roy said encouragingly. He had offered to teach Grant to drive when he had found out the teenager had hitchhiked across the Eastern seaboard and he had had a bit of a heart attack, never mind that Roy had also hitchhiked when he was sixteen. Being a dad changed your perspective some, he guessed.

Grant ran his hands over the steering wheel and bit his lip. “I’m not sure I’m ready for this- if I get nervous or frustrated, I could blow and it’s… not pretty in a car.”

Roy put his hand on Grant’s shoulder. “Hey,” he said gently. “That’s why we’re practicing out in the desert first. No one around other than you and I. We’re just gonna try, okay? And if you aren’t ready, you aren’t ready and that’s okay too.”

Grant took a deep breath and nodded at Roy, steeling his nerves against the softness of Roy’s words and the fact Roy actually believed in him. Roy was probably the most reassuring man Grant had ever met- but that wasn’t saying much considering his most positive male role model as a kid was Doctor Polaris. “Okay.”

“You can do it, kid. I believe in you.” Roy said, hand still on Grant’s shoulder. “Now turn the ignition. Then we’ll worry about the rest.”

“Okay,” Grant said, letting out a breath and turning the key.

“Atta boy!”


	5. Roy and Lian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hope I handled Roy's Navajo upbringing respectfully in this chapter.

Lian had the best daddy in the world.

She knew everyone said that about their dads, but she _meant_ it. Other dads were distant and forgot recitals and spelling tests. Her daddy never did; he only ever missed her school activities when he had to save the world- and even then he normally showed up by the end and had her friend Jenny’s mom video tape the entire thing for him. He helped her study for spelling tests by making the letters in a word a little song. And he always tucked her in at night.

But the absolute best, well one of the absolute bests, was when Lian had a snow day and didn’t have school. 

Lian sat on the counter and watched Daddy flip blueberry pancake after blueberry pancake. She had helped whisk the batter, which had made her feel very grown up. Last year she had mostly just licked the whisk. It was well after when she normally went to school, but she was still in her favorite Superman pajamas and the snow was coming down hard despite it only being November. Daddy was letting her have a hot chocolate with marshmallows even though she hadn’t had breakfast yet.

Daddy was singing along with the radio and Lian was singing to, even if she didn’t really know the words. Lian made up lyrics and she and Daddy giggled at the funny ones she made up. The radio turned to weather though, and Lian wasn’t interested. (She knew better than to hope for two snow days in a row).

Daddy was putting their fresh, fluffy blueberry pancakes on a plate and Lian turned to him with her “cute” face on, the one that Daddy hardly ever said no to.

“Hey Daddy? Can I have a Coyote story?” She kicked her feet at the cupboards under the counter she was sitting on. “It is snowing…”

“A Coyote story, huh? Hmmm,” Daddy made silly a face like he seriously wasn’t sure if he would tell her one. He peaked out the window as if to confirm it really was snowing before grinning at her. “Okay, a Coyote story it is, but eat your pancakes. Once a long time ago…”

Lian really did have the best daddy in the world.


	6. Roy and Dick

“Dickie, babe, I gotta get up,” Roy said, trying to unwrangle himself from his boyfriend’s arms. Dick mumbled into Roy’s side and shook his head. He held him even tighter.

The problem with nighttime vigilantism is that it made for near opposite schedules for he and Roy. Now that Roy was working with the Justice League, the vast majority of his job was in the daylight hours, leading to Dick often coming home in the wee hours of the night when Roy would be waking soon. The morning routine of Dick not wanting to give up his cuddles was something Roy had grown used to. It was something he valued, and he knew Dick did too. There was no better way to wake up.

“I gotta make breakfast and get Lian ready for school,” Roy said, prying Dick’s arms off his waist. “I’ll make you coffee, promise.” Roy stood, stretching and ignoring Dick’s whine from lack of cuddles.

“Hey Roy,” Dick said, leaning up and tilting his lips towards Roy, eyes still blurry with sleep. “I love you.”

Roy paused. Even now, after being together for years and living together, Dick didn’t often say I love you unprompted. It was a hold over from being a bat. He looked at Dick and his face softened before leaning down to capture Dick’s lips in his. “I love you too.”


End file.
